[Social] Paying for Tuesday's Beers

[Will Stanton]

Will leaned back, arms resting on the bar, as she observed the comings and goings of the students. It was weird -- she'd been here the whole time, and yet to part of her, this was brand new -- futuristic and crazy. One advantage of being split into a thousand pieces, perhaps -- recurring novelty, as the new bits of herself consolidated with the 'rest' of her. Everywhere she looked, there was something that she'd need to take a second to re-recognize, as the Stanton and Wyldclay parts of her continued to sort of gel together. Altogether, a fascinating new experience.

((open))

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

That was when a gnoll lookalike entered the pub and approached the bar. He was wearing an XU sweater, so he probably didn't jump out of someone's D&D game. Slapping some money down, he cheerfully announced, "This time I have cash! Beer me!"

His gaze turned to regard Will. He didn't know humans came in that color! Hot. "Hey there," he said with a charismatic smile, "I haven't seen you before."

[Will Stanton]

"What a shame! I'm so sorry," Will said, sympathetically, sliding her way over towards Thrax. "Let's rectify that immediately."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"Let's indeed," he responded with a smirk. "Name's Thrax. You know, like the noise electricity makes."

He demonstrated his powers by letting electricity dance between his fingers. It wasn't enough voltage for such a sound but it got the message across.

"And what's your name, beautiful?"

[Will Stanton]

"Well, that's a nifty parlor trick," she grinned.

"I'm Will. You must be new here; I get around a bit."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"You should see me fly." He smirked.

Then all the evidence of who he was flirting with clicked. Robin's dad, the shapeshifter. Of course he could be a woman if he so desired. Thrax generally considered himself straight but the laws of attraction got a little flexible with people who could change sexes on a whim. Still, he couldn't continue to hit on a friend's parent; he was better than that.

"You're that Will, aren't you? The shapeshifter. I, uhh, met your daughter."

[Will Stanton]

"You're the kind of guy who reads the last page first, aren't you?" Will grinned. "Here you are, knowing all about me, and I barely know you at all."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"Oh, I wouldn't say I know all about you," Thrax answered with a smirk. It wasn't what he wanted to say but he couldn't go blabbing too much about himself without risk of revealing his... well, illegal alien status.

"Really, it's not like Robin told me all your secrets or anything like that. Only the open secret that you two aren't from around here. I've met all sorts on my travels but never someone from another universe." He still thought that was wild and fascinating.

[Will Stanton]

"All it means is a longer commute," Will said, waving a hand dismissively. "We put out pants on one leg at a time back there, too."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"Must have been one wild ride to end up here," he mused with an appreciative grin.

"I bet you're homesick, though," he sighed, no stranger to the feeling. Truth be told, he was jealous that they still found somewhere to belong. But he would never belong there, would he? It worked for Shari but then fitting in was what Skrulls did best; he would always stand out, and not for the reasons he wanted to.

[Will Stanton]

"Not as much as you'd think. Sure, there was a period of time there where things dragged me down, but you can't live your life clinging to the past," Will shrugged.

Also, she had seen a future version of herself returning to her home universe, something which raised further questions thanks to her current existence in the cauldron, but that was more second date talk.

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"I'll drink to that!" he agreed emphatically before downing some of his British ale. Then, he smirked. "Never needed an excuse for booze though. Am I right?"

"Of course I'm right. I'm awesome," he joked with a grin. "Seriously though, you picked a good place to crash while you're here. I doubt there's anywhere better on this planet for weirdos like us."

[Will Stanton]

"Well, I'm still getting the feel of the lay of the land a bit," Will smiled. "It does seem to call to us, though, doesn't it? Probably a little better than Antarctica or 30 floors underground, though whether it's better than a clearing in the middle of the woods under a moonlit night remains up for debate at the moment."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"I mean, the weather's not great but it's a lot better than a frozen wasteland!" he laughed. "I don't have nearly enough fur to make that comfortable. Not remotely. "

The space man blinked and raised a fuzzy brow. "Wait... Why at the moment? Trouble in paradise?"

[Will Stanton]

"Trouble's just opportunity, spelled and pronounced incorrectly," she grinned, taking a swig from her beer.

"To be less cryptic, I'm coming out of one weird situation and entering into another, so everything's a bit fluid at the moment."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

Thrax laughed heartily, grinning. "You just described my life. Always fluid because opportunities always seem to find me. Of course, it's usually fun..."

"At least, until the universe corrects it's spelling," he added with a smirk.

[Will Stanton]

"Here's to staying one step ahead of the spellcheck in the sky," Will grinned, clinking her beer against Thrax's.

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"The fearsome Spellactus can wait in line behind the billion other things that exist to kill the good vibes," Thrax laughed.

He took a long pull before smirking. "So I'll ask you what I ask everyone; what's there to do for fun around here? I've got nothing to do but pass the time."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, tons of things, depending on what you're into.

Tell me some of the kind of stuff you like, and I can narrow that down for you."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"Music, sport, a little bit of harmless mayhem. I'm very much a wine, women and song live fast, die young kind of guy," he answered with an incorrigible grin. "Anything that gets the adrenaline pumping without getting me kicked to the curb."

"Paradoxically, lazy lounging is great too." He smirked. "Between bursts of activity, that is."

[Will Stanton]

"Right!" Will clapped. "Well, despite the reputation of college students, life out here in public at XU is fairly tranquil. Most of the crazy shenanigans either happen in secret, locked off labs and things or in our own dorms, where people can get freaky as all living fuck. When adrenaline starts kicking in here, it's usually because of the running and the screaming and someone being on fire or having their mind swapped with a bull rhino or 100,000 Sentinels coming over the horizon."

"But if you want adrenaline pumping, grab your hat. We're going to Mutant Town."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

Thrax had no idea what a Sentinel was but it was clear that they were a bad thing. He would have to find out before his ignorance conflicted with his cover story. Or one showed up and caught him unawares.

He grinned. "Oh! I passed through there when I took the portal thingy! Yeah, there seemed to be a lot going on there but I was too busy looking for help to check much out. Let's go!"

[Will Stanton]

"Mutant Town, where you can indulge all seven sins in one night if you've got the right itinerary! We'll try to avoid running the whole lot, but if you want to live fast and die young, we can get you a head start," Will said, headed for the door. "The old saying holds true -- if you can remember a full night in Mutant Town, then you didn't do it right."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

Thrax jumped to his feet and started after will, briefly turning back to chug the rest of his beer and release a subsequent belch. "Okay, now let's go," he said with a grin as he jogged to catch up. "I can tell I'm going to like my time here."

"The parts I remember!" he laughed.

[Will Stanton]

"Tell me, Thrax. What's your feeling on axes?" Will asked, as they headed through the portal, the tingling sensation of being blipped through space dancing on their skin.

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

It wasn't his first or even second experience with such technology, so he barely registered the tingle on his second trip through this rudimentary example. Granted, it was a pretty smooth ride for what it was. He had certainly been through rougher.

The extraterrestrial made a show of thinking about the question; he couldn't actually say he was trained in the use of hard light axes. "Axes? Do you mean for chopping or for throwing? I'm decent with both."

[Will Stanton]

"I don't know of a place that lets us just chop down random things at the moment, but I do know of somewhere that allows throwing things..."

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Axe-throwing is trendy; the once adreneling-pumping experience taken over by stag dos, team-building social events, and birthday parties for 20-somethings looking for something cool and alternative. Safety briefings and celebratory T-shirts and photos on your social media about how different and quirky you were.

Widow Makers was not one of those kind of axe-throwing bars.

Most axe-throwing bars do not, above the front desk, have a sign saying that missing limbs or bloodloss were not management's fault once you left the premises. Or a bored looking mutant -- pink skin set-off by a black studded jacket and a truly impressive assortment of facial piercings -- strumming her fingers at the front desk; another, gangly man with 12-foot arms working behind the bar.

"Heya, Alyssa; calling in a chit. Two for the next lane you have open and something special from the private stash please, thatta girl," Will grinned.

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

A seedy dive where safety wasn't guaranteed and danger was celebrated? This was Thrax's kind of place. Even better if there was a betting pool going on who gets themselves maimed and where. Of course, he'd been in much more dangerous bars, where you could get killed in a bar fight and nobody would bat a visual sensory organ.

He grinned at Alyssa. "Gotta say; I love the vibe."

To Will, he added, "And that my new friend is a regular."

[Will Stanton]

"You know, I don't think I've ever come here as a customer before. I've done some work for them; pitched in and done some part-time work. But this will be the first time I've actually thrown an axe," Will said, testing the weight of the thing in her hand. "So this is exciting!"

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"So you're living the odd-job lifestyle. Pretty much what I... Okay, exactly what I do to get by," he responded as they were shown to a lane. He tested his own throwing axe, deftly flipping and catching it in his large hand. "Kinda small but it'll do."

[Will Stanton]

"I've got my fingers in a few pots," Will confirmed, frowning a bit at the weight of the axe in her hands. "Going from place to place as needed and filling things that need to be filled."

She moved the axe from hand to hand, as if trying to get comfortable with it. "Drinks first, or did you want to show me how well you can handle your stick?"

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

Thrax donned a cocky, teasingly dirty smirk. "Nobody's ever complained about the way I handle my stick but it is always more fun after a few drinks."

"But only if you're paying. With great sadness, I can't afford even this place right now. I felt I should be up front about that."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, the drinks are most definitely on me," Will grinned.

The long-armed guy behind the bar stretched out, handing the pair something green, fizzing and bubbly. Will awkwardly set down her axe with a loud thump as she took the glasses, and handed one to Thrax.

"Bottom's up."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

The big guy gave the beverage an exploratory sniff and shrugged before taking a pull of the odd concoction. He had certainly ingested stranger looking drinks. If the University people were going to slip him something funny they would have already. Besides, Thrax wasn't particularly distrustful even on a bad day, much to his occasional detriment.

His eyes widened and, as soon as he swallowed, the bubbles made him sneeze lightly. Storm, that's amazing. "Wow. Just... wow. I've never tasted anything like that!"

[Will Stanton]

"Yeah. Drink too much of it and your tongue goes kinda numb. Drink too much more than THAT and your thoughts get all fuzzy. But before you get there, the bubbles kinda go all up in you and make you feel a little giddy," Will grinned. "Just what you want when you're swinging a weapon around."

"I'm not ENTIRELY sure what's in it -- they have a guy back there, the mixologist? Who makes things which I'm told kind of vibrate in and out of sync with reality. They swear it's safe, and there's a healer right there at the front desk in case it's not. But it's some good shit."

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"Remind me to drink too much later." Thrax grinned before drinking a little more. "I love when my thoughts get as fuzzy as yours truly."

He smirked as he picked up a throwing axe with his off-hand and throwing it at the target. It wasn't a bullseye but it was close. "I think I'd still win."

[Will Stanton]

Will did not realize that Thrax was using his offhand for that; a real Inigo Montoya situation if you've ever seen one. Upon later reflection, that might have changed how the rest of the night went.

"You ARE good. Have you done anything like this before? Because that was a pretty nice shot. And the confidence is nice, too -- think you can beat anyone in here?"

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

Thrax scanned the other bar patrons. Humans did seem pretty weak—even most mutant ones. None had the training of a Stormsinger monk, that much was obvious. Granted, using that training for bar games on a primitive world was probably blasphemous... but the Order was gone.

"Used to practice back home till my arm was numb so... I'd certainly give anyone here a tough contest," he answered, unwittingly opening the door to her asking where home was.

[Will Stanton]

"Then, would you want to put a little bit of a wager on it?" Will smiled, blinking up at Thrax.

[Thraxion Ord'Rakar]

"What do you have in mind?" he asked, intrigued. "Cause, again, my fuzzy ass is broke."